Generally speaking, furniture hinges are designed to enable a movable component (e.g., a door) of a piece of furniture (e.g., a cabinet) to be opened and closed with respect to a stationary component (e.g., the frame of the cabinet). U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,298 B1, for example, discloses a furniture hinge that includes a hinge casing and a hinge arm. The hinge casing and the hinge arm are adapted to be mounted on different furniture parts respectively and are connected to each other by means of a plurality of hinge links. A pressure spring (e.g., a leg spring) acts on one of the hinge links and has a portion encircling a hinge axle of the hinge link in order to mount the pressure spring to the hinge axle. The disclosure of this patent is incorporated herein by reference.
While FIG. 3 of the '298 B1 patent shows the U-shaped leg spring 13 encircling the third axle 11, the U-shaped leg spring can only lie against the hinge arm 1, rather than be secured at a predetermined position, when not yet, but ready to be, mounted to the third axle.
During assembly, therefore, the furniture hinge disclosed in the '298 B1 patent leaves something to be desired. The present invention was developed in the light of the foregoing.